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Chapter 15: Union Divided: The Civil War (1861– 1865)
Important Keywords
First Battle of Bull Run (1861): Early Civil War engagement ending in defeat for the Union army; this battle convinced many in the North that victory over the Confederacy would not be as easy as they first thought it would be.
Emancipation Proclamation: January 1, 1863, proclamation that freed slaves in Southern territories was controlled by the Union army.
Battle of Gettysburg (1863): Bloodiest overall battle of the Civil War; many historians claim that the Southern defeat in this battle was the beginning of the end for the Confederacy.
Appomattox: Virginia courthouse where General Robert E. Lee surrendered Confederate forces on April 9, 1865.
Key Timeline
1860: Lincoln elected president
South Carolina secedes from Union
1861: Confederate States of America created
Attack on Fort Sumter
First Battle of Bull Run
Union begins blockade of Southern ports
1862: New Orleans captured by Union navy
Battle of Shiloh Conscription begins in Confederate states
Emancipation of slaves in Southern states begins
Battle of Antietam
British announce they will not aid the Confederacy in any substantial way
1863: Emancipation Proclamation Conscription begins in the North; draftees may hire “replacements”
First black soldiers enlist in Union army
Crucial Union victory at Gettysburg
Crucial Union victory at Vicksburg
Draft riots in New York City
1864: Abraham Lincoln reelected
General Sherman carries out his “march to the sea”
Desertion becomes a major problem in the Confederate army
1865: General Lee surrenders at Appomattox
Abraham Lincoln assassinated
North and South on the Brink of War
The North had several advantages in fighting the seceded states.
Most of the nation’s wealth was concentrated in the North.
The largest banks and financial markets in New York and Chicago were there.
Northern states had a vast railroad network and were more industrialized.
The North was better at making and transporting war supplies.
The North had three times the South's population, giving it an advantage in manpower.
Southern Confederate supporters believed they could defeat the North.
The agrarian South overestimated cotton's importance to international markets, believing that Great Britain and France would intervene to protect their textile industries.
Southerners believed they had a moral advantage because they were fighting a defensive war to defend their homes and institutions.
Southerners also realized that the North would need a lot of resources to capture and hold the South due to its size.
Searching for Compromise
Slave states in the upper South did not secede immediately after the Confederate States of America was founded in February 1861.
They had fewer slaves and were reluctant to leave the union.
These states tried to reach a secession compromise.
Kentucky and Maryland lawmakers advocated for legislation to preserve slavery in states and territories where it existed.
President James Buchanan, very much a lame duck, provided little leadership.
In December 1860, he declared secession illegal but believed there were no constitutional grounds to compel states to stay in the Union.
The leaders of the Confederacy grew confident that they had nothing to fear from Buchanan.
Confederates occupied most federal installations in the seceded states.
Fort Sumter, a fortress on an island in Charleston harbor, was ordered evacuated by the new South Carolina government.
In January 1861, Buchanan attempted to resupply the fort by sending south an unarmed merchant ship.
Buchanan refused to use the navy again after the Confederates shot up the supply ship.
This emboldened the Confederates in Charleston.
Senator John Crittenden of Kentucky proposed another compromise while most Americans were focused on Fort Sumter.
Crittenden Plan: It called for federal protection of slavery where it existed and the formal extension of the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific, with territory south of the line open to slavery and north free.
Crittenden's compromise failed because Republicans refused to give up their free-soil position on slavery in the territories that had won them the national election.
Gunfire at Fort Sumter
In a long time between his election in November 1860 and his inauguration in March 1861, Abraham Lincoln had to be politically cautious.
He assured Southerners that he would not interfere with slavery in the slave states while maintaining his position on slavery in the territories.
He affirmed federal authority, while saying nothing to provoke a war.
At his inauguration, Lincoln said he wanted to reconcile with the seceded states but would use force if necessary.
Lincoln knew he could not fire the first shots to rally support for a secessionist war.
He used the Fort Sumter crisis to maneuver the Confederates into doing that.
In April 1861, Lincoln dispatched another supply ship toward Fort Sumter.
Charleston's Confederate authorities and Jefferson Davis decided to strike before the ship arrived.
On April 12, the Confederates bombarded the fort, and two days later the federal garrison surrendered.
Davis hoped Fort Sumter would show Confederate strength and rally support for secession.
After Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to put down the rebellion, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas seceded and joined the Confederacy.
However, Lincoln managed to keep the slave states of Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri in the Union, greatly strengthening the federal government's strategic position.
Opening Strategies
Southerners sincerely claimed to be defending the principle of states’ rights.
Despite the fact that most Southerners did not own slaves, this concern was driven by a strong attachment to slavery.
Slavery's centrality to secession undermined Confederate cotton diplomacy with Britain and France.
European powers wanted Southern cotton and were unfriendly to the U.S.
Britain and France were wary of supporting the "peculiar institution" since slavery was outlawed.
Confederate cotton embargoes to Europe failed early in the war.
President Davis and his advisors hoped this would economically hurt Britain and France enough to force them to recognize the Confederacy.
Instead, Europeans found other cotton sources, causing long-term damage to the South.
In 1861, great numbers of volunteers joined the Union and Confederate armies.
Both sides predicted an easy win in the initial excitement.
Lincoln persuaded Northerners to fight to preserve the Union, arguing that allowing the rebellion to succeed would undermine representative government.
Once Virginia seceded, the Confederate capital moved to Richmond.
Northern newspapers editorialized "On to Richmond!" believing that taking this city near Washington D.C. would end the war.
General Winfield Scott, the elderly U.S. Army commander, was the only important official who thought the war would be long and hard.
Lincoln urged the federal forces gathering outside Washington to attack.
A half trained army set off for Richmond.
On July 21, 1861, this force was defeated by an equally green Confederate army at the First Battle of Bull Run.
The Union troops retreated to Washington in disorder.
The victorious Confederates were too disorganized to pursue them.
The Loss of Illusions
The heavy casualties at First Bull Run shocked both sides.
President Lincoln realized the war would be hard and studied General Scott's strategy.
Scott's plan, dubbed the Anaconda Plan by uninformed journalists, was to blockade the southern coastline and seize the Mississippi River to economically strangle the Confederacy before well-trained federal armies finished it off.
Lincoln ordered the Navy to close off all Southern ports.
The blockade improved over time.
After the war, the South couldn't export cotton or import manufactured goods.
In April 1862, the U.S. Navy took New Orleans, closing the Mississippi River to the Confederacy.
Jefferson Davis also realized that he faced a long and difficult war.
In April 1862, he convinced the Confederate Congress to establish the first national draft.
The Confederacy's states' rights principles hindered Davis's efforts to streamline the war effort.
Southern governors resisted the president's attempts to control their troops and resources.
Davis never fixed the Confederacy's economy.
He printed paper money without gold reserves, repeating the American Revolutionary War mistake.
Inflation rendered Confederate money worthless.
Union Victories in the West
Union armies advanced in the West despite military setbacks in the East.
In February 1862, Ulysses S. Grant captured Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in Tennessee, taking many prisoners and driving back Confederate forces in the Mississippi Valley.
On April 6, the Confederates counterattacked Grant at Shiloh.
The Confederates were defeated in the war's bloodiest battle.
After Shiloh, Federal forces moved south to attack Vicksburg, the last major Confederate stronghold in the Mississippi River.
In November 1861, General McClellan replaced General Scott as Union army commander.
McClellan was a good strategist but overly cautious, believing the enemy outnumbered him.
He delayed taking Richmond, testing Lincoln's patience.
In spring 1862, he moved from Bull Run to Richmond.
His army moved so slowly that the Confederates, under a new commander named Robert E. Lee, defeated him in a series of battles.
Lee defeated a federal army at the Second Battle of Bull Run.
To avoid the Union blockade, the Confederates built the ironclad Merrimack.
In March 1862, after sinking some federal ships, it battled the Monitor, a hastily launched federal ironclad, inconclusively.
The Confederates could not build enough ironclads to win the war, but the new ships showed the future of all navies.
The Home Fronts
The war's leaders struggled with the South's states' rights ethos.
In 1861, many Southerners volunteered for a year.
By 1862, these men were looking forward to returning home.
Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee supported the conscription law out of concern for Confederate army muster rolls.
All white men 18–35 were drafted into the Confederate Army for three years.
The ages were later extended from 17 to 50.
The draft proved to be very unpopular.
The conflict was called "a rich man's war and a poor man's fight" due to large slave owners' exemptions to monitor their slaves.
State leaders' obstruction of the law prevented up to 60% of Confederate military-aged men from serving.
Southerners began to experience serious economic hardships in late 1862.
Inflation drove up prices.
Food shortages became common.
Men deserted the army to support their families.
Confederate income taxes violated states' rights.
By the end of the war, the South was so impoverished that the government accepted grain and livestock instead of money.
Unlike the South, the North prospered economically during the war.
War's tensions couldn't be eased by a healthy balance sheet.
Northern leaders were also worried about military manpower.
In 1863, Congress passed a draft law that called up men between the ages of 20 and 45.
The law was intended to stimulate voluntary enlistments, often accompanied by financial bounties.
Relatively few men were drafted.
Despite this, the law was widely condemned.
Wealthier people could hire a substitute or pay $300 to avoid the draft, which was especially unpopular.
In July 1863, the law led to riots in New York City.
Irish immigrants and others threatened by the draft rioted, destroying property and killing 200 African Americans, whom they unfairly blamed for the war.
Though much more financially secure than the South, the North also faced challenges in funding an expensive war.
The federal government passed an income tax law in 1861.
Next year, the government issued "greenbacks," non-gold-backed paper money.
This paper money was accepted by the people and worked well through the war due to the US's superior credit.
President Lincoln expanded the power of the presidency during the war.
He declared martial law in Kentucky.
He aggressively pursued Northern Democrats who opposed the war.
Antiwar Democrats were called Copperheads.
The war imprisoned 14,000 Copperheads without trial.
Three men were deported into the Confederacy.
Lincoln repeatedly suspended habeas corpus for Copperhead arrests.
The Emancipation Proclamation
Lincoln's initial goal was to restore the Union.
He resisted abolitionist calls out of concern that freeing slaves would hurt government support in border states.
Lincoln realized that slavery was aiding the South as the war dragged on.
He freed Confederate-held slaves as a war measure.
After a federal victory, he realized he had to do this to avoid appearing desperate politically.
General McClellan's army defeated Robert E. Lee's invasion of Maryland at the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862, the bloodiest day of the Civil War.
The Emancipation Proclamation went into effect on January 1, 1863.
It changed the nature of the war.
The North now wanted to extend freedom and end a rebellion.
In 1862, many Northerners were skeptical, and the Democrats did well.
Ending slavery made sense over time.
Liberating slaves eliminated the possibility of European powers saving the Confederacy.
Slaves in Union territory remained unresolved after the war.
Southerners defied the Emancipation Proclamation.
The Turn of the Tide
The Confederacy remained formidable in late 1862 and early 1863.
Robert E. Lee won the Battle of Fredericksburg on December 13, 1862, and the Battle of Chancellorsville on May 1–3, 1863.
Lee realized that Northern superiority in men and material could not be resisted forever.
He convinced President Davis that a decisive Northern victory would end the war.
In June 1863, Lee led his army north.
General George Meade's army pursued him.
At Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, two armies fought.
From July 1 to 3, Lee failed to breach Meade's strong defenses.
After losing 28,000 men, a third of his army, he fled.
The federal forces lost 24,000 men and were too bloodied to follow up their victory.
Lee was a brilliant tactician, and his weakened army was still dangerous, but he could never lead again.
The war had reached a turning point.
Western events confirmed the Confederacy's defeat.
General Ulysses S. Grant finished his long-running campaign to isolate and capture Vicksburg while fighting at Gettysburg.
The Battle of Vicksburg ended with the city's surrender on July 4, 1863.
Union forces controlled the entire Mississippi River, splitting the Confederacy.
In November, President Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address while dedicating a national cemetery at the battle site.
On November 23–25, General Grant won the Battle of Chattanooga in southeastern Tennessee, opening an invasion route into Georgia.
In early 1864, Grant took command of the Union army.
He revitalized federal military strategy.
He orchestrated a Confederate attack.
In May 1864, General William Tecumseh Sherman's army targeted Atlanta, Georgia, while Grant accompanied Meade's army toward Richmond.
War Weariness
By early 1864, some Confederate officials were urging peace talks.
Economic conditions continued to deteriorate.
The Confederate army fought on, but under enormous strain.
Grant's army never lost contact with Lee's after attacking Virginia.
Lee inflicted heavy casualties on the invaders, but he also lost irreplaceable lives.
Grant knew he could sustain an unequal exchange of casualties and that as he tied down and wore down Lee's army, other federal forces were knifing into the overstretched Confederacy.
Sherman slowly approached Atlanta in Georgia, slowed by Confederate resistance.
1864 was an election year. As the death toll mounted, President Lincoln’s reelection chances dimmed.
Patriotic Democrats nominated General George McClellan to capitalize on antiwar sentiment.
By late summer, even Lincoln thought that he would be defeated.
Battlefield victories changed the momentum of the campaign.
Jefferson Davis appointed an aggressive commander to defend Atlanta.
The Confederates attacked Sherman and were badly defeated.
Their losses were so great they had to evacuate Atlanta.
The fall of Atlanta was a clear indication that the Confederacy was tottering.
In Virginia, Grant forced Lee to defend Petersburg outside Richmond.
Both sides settled down to trench warfare.
Lee’s devoted army was all but trapped.
With victory in sight, Lincoln won reelection.
The End of the War
General Sherman burned military-useful parts of Atlanta in November 1864 to destroy Southern morale.
Living off the land, he led an army across Georgia and captured Savannah on the coast.
Along the way, his men left a swathe of destruction.
The Confederate army could no longer defend Southern civilians.
Confederate soldiers deserted to protect their families.
Sherman invaded the Carolinas in 1865.
In Virginia, Lee’s position at Petersburg gradually grew worse.
In early April, Grant threatened to encircle his army.
Lee tried to escape but was cornered by Grant at Appomattox.
On April 9, Lee surrendered his army.
By the beginning of June, all other Confederate forces had laid down their arms.
President Lincoln hoped for a peace of reconciliation.
On April 14, 1865, he was assassinated while attending a performance of Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theater.
John Wilkes Booth, a failed actor and Southern fanatic, plotted to kill Lincoln, the vice president, and the secretary of state.
Booth was the only conspirator to succeed in his mission.
After escaping, federal troops killed him.
Most of the conspirators were captured and hanged by a military tribunal.
Lincoln's running mate in 1864 was Unionist Democrat Andrew Johnson.
Johnson, as president, had to heal the nation after a civil war.